'"
"Ay, that's a very good joke, landlord," said the alderman; "but you
know I am up to your jokes: you think these long stories will save your
mutton, but there you're wrong--they only give time to take breath; so
bring in the sirloin and the saddle of mutton, waiter; and when
we've done dinner I'll tell you an anecdote of old Tattersall and his
beef-eater, which occurred at this house in a former landlord's time.
Come, Mr. Blackmantle, let me send you a slice of the sirloin, and tell
us what you think of good eating."
"That the wit of modern times directs all its rage _ad gulam_; and the
only inducement to study is _erudito luxu_, to please the palate, and
satisfy the stomach. Even my friend Ebony, the northern light, has cast
off the anchorite, and sings thus jollily:
'The science of eating is old,
Its antiquity no man can doubt:
Though Adam was squeamish, we're told,
Eve soon found a _dainty bit_ out.'
"We talk of the degeneracy of the moderns, as if men now-a-days were
in every respect inferior to their ~99~~ancestors; but I maintain, and
challenge contradiction, that there are many stout rubicund gentlemen
in this metropolis that might be backed for eating or drinking with
any Bacchanalian or masticator since the days of Adam himself.
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